Forum OpenACS Q&A: Fresh install

1: Fresh install

Posted by Jason Lozzi on 04/14/03 09:31 PM

Hi I have just installed OpenACS 4.6.2 on Redhat 8.0 with PostgreSQL 7.2.3 on my system here and it seems to be working correctly but before I continue with making changes and adding content to it I would like to know what is a good test for me to run against it so that I can be sure that things are setup correctly?

Thanks lots.

2: Re: Fresh install (response to 1)

Posted by Joel Aufrecht on 04/15/03 05:56 AM

ACS used to have a very thorough automated self-test. We have a framework for that in 4.6.2 but not the tests. Here are some things I can think of for a shakedown off the top of my head:

Browse to the front page and make sure you see a full page, links to modules, etc.
Inspect the startup log (/web/service0/log/error.log
Go to /admin and add some users. Try to log in as one of the users and use the site.
Install bboard, notes, or other modules and use them.
Try full-text-search (very fragile, so if it works you're in good shape

In general, though, the failure modes on install tend to be severe, as in no database connectivity or no server startup. So if it "seems to be working correctly," as in the pages come up, the packages install cleanly and mount cleanly and work, then it probably is working correctly. That's the cue to make a backup :)

3: Re: Fresh install (response to 1)

Posted by Peter Marklund on 04/15/03 10:15 AM

Jason,
as Joel says, I would watch carefully for errors and warnings in the log file.

I just wanted to mention that another testing asset that we have is acs-automated-testing - a package that doesn't install by default. Those tests work on the Tcl API level. Unfortunately, only a few packages are covered. Furthermore, I'm not sure all of the tests pass in the 4.6.2 release, but we should at least make sure that they do for the 4.7 release this summer.

Another great testing tool is Tclwebtest that works on the HTTP level and can act as a user. I have a script that can set up all the data (classes, users etc.) that we use at the dotlrn demo server. See the dotlrn installation instructions for details on how to obtain the scripts.

4: Re: Fresh install (response to 1)

Posted by Jason Lozzi on 04/15/03 06:58 PM

Thanks a lot for the pointing in the right direction... I have been installing some packages and making sure that they work and it seems to be working good now.

After about the 20th install I think that I have it now. Being a newbie to unix/linux I am getting caught up with permissions not set correctly and have learned a good lesson in getting things right.